Everything you need to run the EverythingThreads BUILD course across your team without becoming the support desk. How to brief your staff, monitor progress, unblock the common stuck-points, evaluate the capstones, and justify the spend to your own boss.
📘 28 segments · 4 weeks👥 Designed for teams of 5–25⏱ 6–8 hrs of your time across the rollout
Section 1
What BUILD actually delivers
BUILD is a 28-segment, 4-week, fully self-paced course that takes a non-coder from "what is a terminal?" to a deployed AI tool with a working frontend, a Cloudflare Worker proxy, an installable PWA, a Chrome extension, and a documented GitHub portfolio. Every student finishes with a real, live, working product on a public URL — not a certificate.
Week 1 · Segments 1–7
Foundations + First Live Site
VS Code, terminal, Git/GitHub, Node, Netlify. Segment 7 is the payoff: their first website live on the public internet. Most students who complete Week 1 finish the course.
Week 2 · Segments 8–14
HTML/CSS/JS + First AI Call
The web fundamentals, then Segment 11 — the moment their code talks to Claude through a Cloudflare Worker. Multi-model and orchestration follow.
Week 3 · Segments 15–21
System Prompts, PWA, Chrome Extension
The 5-element system prompt framework, an installable Progressive Web App, a working Chrome extension, sector-specific application, and Cron automation.
Week 4 · Segments 22–28
Production + Capstone
Error handling, security, testing, performance, deployment pipeline, README documentation, and the final capstone project — a deployed AI tool the student owns and can demo.
Why 4 weeks, not 12
BUILD is paced for working professionals doing 4–6 hours per week alongside their day job. Stretching it longer kills momentum (most online courses lose students at the 6-week mark). Compressing it shorter overwhelms non-coders. Four weeks is the sweet spot — long enough to learn properly, short enough to finish.
Section 2
Who BUILD is for (and who it isn't)
Use this list to pre-screen staff before enrolling them. Wrong-fit students drop out in Week 1 and you waste a seat.
✓ Good fit
Curious about AI but doesn't know where to start with code
Comfortable with technology generally (uses spreadsheets, can install apps, knows what a browser is)
Has 4–6 hours per week for 4 weeks and a manager who's protected that time
Wants a tangible thing at the end — not just "knowledge"
Owns a desktop or laptop running Windows, macOS, or Linux
⚠ Wrong fit — find them a different course
Wants professional AI literacy without writing code — they don't want to build tools, they want to use AI more carefully in their actual day job (legal, finance, healthcare, HR, comms). They need SHARP, not BUILD. SHARP is the £99 professional AI literacy course covering the 7 Machine Patterns, 10 Human Failures, intervention scripts, and a personal Risk Score — no installs, no terminals, no code. Pair it with the SHARP Manager Pack to roll it out the same way.
Already a developer — BUILD is too foundational. Point them at the upcoming ELITE tier instead (production agent engineering: orchestration, RAG, multi-agent, deployment).
Complete AI beginner — never used ChatGPT, doesn't have a sense of what AI does or where it goes wrong. They need CLEAR first (the free foundational course) — then either SHARP or BUILD depending on whether they want literacy or hands-on building.
Only has a phone or tablet — BUILD requires a real computer to install VS Code, Git, and Node.js. SHARP runs entirely in a browser and works on any device, so it's a fine alternative.
Manager hasn't carved out the time. Without protected hours they'll fall behind in Week 2 and quit. This is fixable — see Section 3.
Wants accreditation more than skills. BUILD is non-accredited — sell them on the artefact (live tool + GitHub portfolio), not the certificate.
💡 Mixed teams? Run SHARP first, BUILD second
If your team is a mix of "I want to be more careful with AI" people and "I want to build tools with AI" people — run SHARP across the whole team first (3–4 weeks, no installs, 2–4 hours per week per person), then enrol the technically curious subset into BUILD afterwards. SHARP gives the whole team a shared vocabulary for AI risk, which makes everything BUILD teaches land harder. It's also the cheapest way to find out who's actually motivated enough for the BUILD commitment.
Section 3
Pre-rollout checklist
Run through this before kickoff day. Each item takes a few minutes and saves a week of friction later.
Confirm device readiness. Every student needs a desktop/laptop they can install software on — not a locked-down corporate machine. Get IT involved before kickoff if necessary. The #1 cause of Week 1 dropout is "I can't install VS Code on my work laptop."
Block calendars. Negotiate 4–6 hours per week of protected time per student for 4 weeks. Put it in their calendars yourself.
Pair students into buddies. Two students per pair. They unstick each other before either of them needs to ask you. This single change roughly halves your support load.
Pick a Slack/Teams channel. One central channel for the cohort. Stuck-points get posted there first, not to you. Buddies answer first.
Pin the Code Mentor. Every segment has a built-in AI Code Mentor (paste code → get diagnosis). Make sure students know it exists and use it before pinging the channel.
Send the kickoff email (template in Section 8) the Friday before Week 1 starts. Give students the weekend to mentally prepare.
Schedule a 30-minute kickoff call on Day 1. Not to teach — to set expectations, introduce buddies, answer first questions, and remove the unknown.
Schedule a 30-minute mid-point check at end of Week 2. This is the dropout cliff. A single check-in here saves the cohort.
Schedule a 60-minute capstone showcase at end of Week 4. Each student demos their tool. Use the rubric in Section 6 to grade.
Brief your own boss. See Section 9 for the ROI pitch. Get buy-in for the time investment before Week 1, not after.
Section 4
The 7 most common stuck-points (and how to unblock without becoming the helpdesk)
Across hundreds of BUILD students, the same handful of friction points come up over and over. Here's the playbook.
"I can't install VS Code / Git / Node — my work laptop blocks it"
Hits in Segments 2, 4, or 5. Corporate machine has admin restrictions. Student is dead in the water without IT.
Fix this BEFORE kickoff. Get an IT admin to whitelist VS Code, Git for Windows, Node.js, and the 4 VS Code extensions. If you can't, the student needs a different machine. Don't let this drag past Day 2.
"My terminal commands aren't working — it says 'command not found'"
Segment 3. Student typed the right command but the install path isn't on their PATH variable, or they're in the wrong shell (PowerShell vs Git Bash on Windows).
Tell them to close the terminal completely and reopen it. 80% of "command not found" errors after a fresh install are stale terminal sessions. If that doesn't work, the Code Mentor will diagnose it in 30 seconds.
"git push gives 'authentication failed'"
Segment 4. GitHub disabled password auth in 2021 — students need a Personal Access Token, not their password.
Point them at GitHub Settings → Developer Settings → Personal Access Tokens → generate one with `repo` scope, paste THAT in place of the password. The course covers this but tired students miss it.
"My Netlify site shows a 404 / blank page"
Segment 7. Either the file is named wrong (should be `index.html` exactly), the folder structure is nested too deep, or Netlify hasn't finished its first build.
Three checks in order: (1) is the file literally called `index.html`? (2) is it at the repo root, not in a subfolder? (3) wait 90 seconds and refresh — first builds are slow. If still broken, the Code Mentor will catch it.
"My Cloudflare Worker returns 500 / nothing happens"
Segment 11. The make-or-break moment. Usually one of: API key not set as a Worker secret, key has a typo, fetch URL doesn't match the deployed Worker URL, or CORS headers missing.
Open the Worker logs in the Cloudflare dashboard — they tell you exactly what failed. 90% of the time it's the secret. Run `wrangler secret put ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` again. Code Mentor handles the other 10%.
"I'm behind. Should I quit?"
Hits in Week 2 or Week 3. Real life happened. Student is 3–5 segments behind the cohort and embarrassed.
Reassure them, then renegotiate. The course saves progress automatically. Tell them to skip ahead to the segment everyone else is on, do that one live with the cohort, then catch up the missed ones in their own time. Falling behind is recoverable. Quitting is not.
"My final project doesn't work in Segment 28"
Capstone week. Student combined Worker + frontend + system prompt and one of the moving pieces broke.
The Final Project block in Segment 28 has a 4-step deploy checklist. Have them run through it line by line. Then have them paste the broken piece into the Code Mentor — it knows the expected outcome of every segment, so it diagnoses fast.
Section 5
How to monitor without micromanaging
You don't need to watch every student. You need to spot the ones falling behind early.
Weekly Slack check-in. One message in the channel: "Where is everyone? Drop a number 1–28." 30 seconds of effort, you instantly see who's slipping.
Watch for silence. Students who post nothing for 5 days are usually stuck and embarrassed. DM them privately. Don't wait for them to come to you.
Capstone preview at end of Week 3. Ask each student to describe their final project idea in 2 sentences. If they can't, they're behind — flag them for a 1:1.
Don't review code. The Code Mentor does that. Your job is human — momentum, motivation, calendar protection, escalation. Never let yourself become the debugging bottleneck.
Section 6
Capstone Review Rubric (Segment 28)
Use this at the end-of-course showcase. Each student demos their tool live for 4 minutes, you score against these 5 criteria. Total out of 100. A passing capstone is 60+. A standout is 85+.
Live & working
Tool loads on a public URL, accepts input, returns an AI response without errors. Has been tested on a phone as well as desktop.
25 pts
System prompt
Uses the 5-element framework from Segment 15. Sector-specific. Demonstrably better output than a default ChatGPT prompt.
20 pts
Multi-model OR orchestration
Either compares two models side-by-side, OR chains multiple AI calls in a pipeline. Either approach is fine.
15 pts
Edge case handling
Handles empty input, very long input, API timeout, and rate-limit gracefully with clear user messages. Test all four live during the demo.
15 pts
PWA or Chrome extension
Either installable as a PWA (manifest + service worker) or working as an unpacked Chrome extension. Either is fine.
10 pts
README quality
Uses the BUILD README template. Has a one-line description, live demo link, screenshots, "how it works" diagram, setup steps. Looks professional on GitHub.
15 pts
Section 7
Time commitment — yours, not theirs
Total manager time across the 4-week rollout, end to end:
Pre-rollout setup: 90 minutes (run the Section 3 checklist, send the kickoff email, brief your boss)
Kickoff call: 30 minutes
Weekly Slack check-ins (4×): 15 minutes each = 60 minutes
Mid-point check call: 30 minutes
1:1s with falling-behind students: 30 minutes each, expect 1–3 across the cohort = 30–90 minutes
Total: roughly 6–8 hours of your time across 4 weeks, for a team of up to 20. If you find yourself spending more than that, you've become the helpdesk — refer back to Section 5 and re-route stuck students to the Code Mentor and the buddy pairs.
Section 8
Email templates — copy, paste, send
Four ready-to-use emails covering the full lifecycle. Personalise the bracketed bits, leave the structure.
📨 Kickoff — send the Friday before Week 1
Subject: We're starting BUILD on Monday — here's what you need to know
Hi all,
Starting Monday, [team name] is running through the EverythingThreads BUILD course — 28 segments over 4 weeks that take you from "I've never written code" to "I have a real AI tool live on the internet with my name on it."
This isn't a certificate course. At the end you'll have:
• A live website on a public URL
• An AI-powered tool you built and understand line by line
• Either a Chrome extension or an installable mobile app
• A documented GitHub portfolio anyone can look at
What I need from you before Monday:
1. Make sure you can install software on your laptop — if your work machine is locked down, ping me today, not Monday
2. Block 4–6 hours per week in your calendar for the next 4 weeks. I've already started doing this for you.
3. Read this email :)
How it'll run:
• You go through the segments at your own pace in your own time
• Stuck? Use the AI Code Mentor at the bottom of every segment FIRST. It's instant.
• Still stuck? Ping the [#build-cohort] channel. Your buddy will help.
• Really stuck? Then ping me. I'm last resort, not first.
Kickoff call Monday at [time]. Not to teach — just to introduce buddies, answer first questions, and start.
Course link: https://everythingthreads.com/course-build
[Your name]
📨 Week 1 nudge — send the Friday of Week 1
Subject: One week in — drop your segment number
Hi all,
Quick check-in. We're at the end of Week 1. By now you should be at or near Segment 7 — the one where your first website goes live.
Drop the segment number you're currently on in [#build-cohort]. No judgement — just so I know where everyone is.
If you're behind and feel embarrassed: don't be. Catch up on the weekend or skip ahead and patch the missed ones later. Falling behind is recoverable. Disappearing is not.
If you got to Segment 7 and saw your site go live: that's the moment. Take a screenshot. You earned it.
Stuck on something specific? Use the Code Mentor at the bottom of the segment. It diagnoses the issue in 5 bullets and tells you what to check next.
[Your name]
📨 Mid-point — send start of Week 3
Subject: Halfway through BUILD — what's your final project going to be?
Hi all,
Halfway. You should be around Segment 14–15 by now. From here on, the course gets more interesting and less install-heavy.
Start thinking about your capstone (Segment 28). Reply to this email with two sentences: what is your AI tool going to do, and who is it for? Don't overthink it — pick something from your actual day job.
Examples:
• "A tool that takes a customer email and drafts three reply options ranked by tone."
• "A tool that summarises a contract clause and flags anything unusual."
• "A Chrome extension that scores a webpage's claims for source quality."
Anything in your real workflow that involves reading or writing text is fair game. The simpler the better.
Mid-point check call: [date/time]. Bring questions.
[Your name]
📨 Showcase invite — send start of Week 4
Subject: BUILD showcase next [day] — 4 minutes per person
Hi all,
We're nearly there. Showcase is on [date/time], 60 minutes. Each of you gets 4 minutes to demo your final project live to the rest of the team.
What I need from you on the day:
1. A live URL (your tool deployed on Netlify)
2. Your GitHub repo link
3. A 30-second pitch — what does it do, who is it for
4. A 90-second live demo — type something, show the AI response
5. 60 seconds on what was hardest
I'll be scoring against the BUILD capstone rubric. Standout projects get featured internally + shared with the EverythingThreads team for inclusion in the next cohort's case studies.
You've done four weeks of real work. Bring it.
[Your name]
Section 9
ROI talking points — for briefing your own boss
When leadership asks "is this worth it?", lead with these. Specific, defensible, measurable.
The pitch in one sentence
"For under £600 per head, every member of [team] will finish with a deployed AI tool they built and understand — which is what most £8,000 bootcamps deliver, but faster, asynchronously, and without taking anyone off their day job."
Comparable bootcamps cost $8,000–$13,000 per seat. BUILD delivers the same Layer 3 ("AI Engineering") outcome — designing agents, calling APIs, deploying via Workers — at a fraction of the cost.
Tangible artefact, not a certificate. Every student finishes with a live URL, a GitHub portfolio, and a tool they can demo. That's measurable in a way "completed AI literacy training" isn't.
Standardised toolchain across the team. Every student uses the same VS Code, Git, Cloudflare Workers, and Anthropic API setup. No more shadow IT, no more 12 different "AI experiments" with no shared infrastructure.
API key security is built in. The Cloudflare Worker proxy pattern (Segment 11+) keeps all API keys server-side. No staff member ever holds a raw API key in their browser. This is a corporate compliance requirement masquerading as a teaching choice.
4 weeks, 4–6 hours/week per person. Real, but small. Less disruptive than any conference, certification, or in-person training day.
Prep for the EU AI Act (August 2026). AI literacy is becoming a mandatory legal requirement. BUILD covers risk, security, and human-in-the-loop patterns — all of which line up with the Act's literacy obligations for staff working with AI systems.
Cohort effect. Running it as a team — same start date, same Slack channel, same buddies — has roughly double the completion rate of staff doing online courses individually.
Section 10
Staff FAQ — share with your team
Print this or paste it into your kickoff doc. Answers the questions every new BUILD student asks in Week 1.
Do I need to know how to code already?
No. BUILD assumes you know nothing. Segment 1 starts with "what is a terminal." If you're already a developer, this course will be too foundational — ask your manager about the upcoming ELITE tier.
How much time per week?
4–6 hours. Some weeks more (Week 1 is the heaviest because of installs), some less. Plan for an hour a day Monday to Friday or two longer sessions.
What if I get stuck?
In order: (1) the Code Mentor at the bottom of every segment — paste your code, get instant feedback, (2) your buddy in the cohort, (3) the team Slack channel, (4) your manager. The Code Mentor handles 80% of stuck-points in seconds.
What if I miss a week?
Catch up on the weekend OR skip ahead to where the cohort is and patch the missed segments later. The course saves your progress automatically. Falling behind is normal — disappearing is the only failure.
Will I get a certificate?
No. BUILD is non-accredited. What you'll get is something better: a real, live AI tool with your name on it, a GitHub repo anyone can look at, and the ability to demo it to anyone who asks. That's worth more than a certificate.
Is the AI Code Mentor going to give me the answers?
No — by design. It diagnoses what you got wrong in five short bullets and points you at what to check next. It will not rewrite your code or hand you the solution. The point is to learn.
Can I use my work laptop?
Probably yes, but check before Week 1. You need to install VS Code, Git, Node.js, and a few extensions. If your machine is locked down, talk to your manager and IT before kickoff — don't wait until Day 2.
What if my final project idea isn't good enough?
It is. The simplest projects are usually the best. If you can describe the tool in one sentence ("it takes X and turns it into Y for someone like Z"), you have a final project. Don't overthink it.
Section 11
When to escalate to EverythingThreads
The course is designed to run without vendor support. But if any of these happen, email hello@everythingthreads.com — clearly subject-lined with "BUILD Manager Pack — [your company]":
You hit a stuck-point that the Code Mentor can't diagnose and isn't covered in Section 4 of this pack
You want to roll BUILD out to a second cohort and need the bulk pricing tier
You want a sector-specific variant of BUILD — all 7 sector editions are now live: Legal (SRA / BSB / Mata v. Avianca), Finance (FCA / PRA / Consumer Duty), Education (Ofsted / QAA / JCQ / KCSIE), Healthcare (NHS DSPT, explicitly NOT a SaMD), Governance (UK Gov AI Playbook / ATRS / G-Cloud), Marketing (CAP code / ASA / CMA), and HR & People Ops (Equality Act / ACAS / UK GDPR Art 22). The sector hub compares all 7 with pricing and lets you pick the one matching your team's primary regulator.
Your team's capstone projects are exceptional and you'd like them considered for the EverythingThreads case study collection
You want to upgrade your most advanced students to the upcoming ELITE tier for production AI engineering
EverythingThreads support is email-only by design. You'll get a reply within 2 working days. For genuine emergencies during a paid rollout, mark the email subject "URGENT" and we'll prioritise.
One last thing
The single most important thing you can do as the manager running BUILD isn't technical. It's protecting your team's time. Every student who quits BUILD quits because their day-job pulled them under in Week 2. If you do nothing else from this pack — block their calendars, defend that block from other managers, and reschedule their meetings yourself for those 4 weeks. That single act of air cover is worth more than every other section combined.
